The following ideas are small changes/enhancements to the interface that I think would make the Tivo even better.  Note that none of these require any changes to the hardware (they’re all software-based ideas).  I don’t expect the folks at TiVo to be following this blog, but thought I might spark an interesting discussion amongst other TiVo users that have a software development background.

Making The Tivo S3 Even Better

1. Create Season Pass from Tivo Suggestion:  This one seems so simple, I’m surprised they didn’t do it.  As most of you know, TiVo provides a simple “recommendation” feature whereby it observes your past viewing habits and automatically records shows it think you might like.  These show up in the “TiVo Suggestions” area.  But, there’s no way to pick a show in the suggestions area and then automatically create a “season pass” from it.  Other than voting the show up or down, you can’t indicate your desire to watch the suggested show regularly from then on in.

2. TiVo Suggestions Page Icon:  Currently, when looking at the list of suggestions in the Tivo Suggestions area, all you see are:  a standard “Tivo” icon (which indicates that the show is a Tivo suggestion), the title of the show, the date of recording, and in some cases, the logo of the channel it was recorded from.  First off, showing the Tivo icon is redundant here.  All the shows in this area are TiVo suggestions.  Instead, it would be helpful to show an icon that either indicated the degree to which TiVo thinks I will like this show (one, two or three thumbs) or an icon indicating whether this is a new show I’ve never watched before, or a show that I have watched, at least partially before.  

3. Add “Play From Beginning” Option:  This is standard fare on ReplayTV.  When selecting a show to play that has already been started, TiVo (correctly) gives you the option to “Resume Playing”.  But, there is no way to start the show from the beginning.  Though this may sound like an “edge case”, it is common enough (and easy enough to understand) that there is little harm in adding it on the list of commands when selecting a show.  

4. Don’t Exit The Guide/Tivo Central Pages!  This is a pet peeve, but it’s a big one.  Here’s the deal.  I watch TV in the background when I’m working.  One of the nice things about the TiVo Central screen is that it cuts the sound off (and the video, because it’s a static text-based page).  I use it as a quick “pause everything, including the sound” mode.  This is great.  But, TiVo, in its infinite wisdom will automatically exit this screen.  Sounds comes back on, video comes back on, etc.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from the TV in “TiVo Central” mode and have it rudely start playing TV again when I wasn’t expecting it.

5. When Entering Letters, Provide Wrap-Around:  One area most of these types of devices struggle with is providing data input for text fields (like in Search).  TiVo generally does an OK job with this providing an on screen keyboard so that each individual letter can be selected.  One little thing that they should support is the ability to scroll to one “edge” of the screen and have it “wrap-around” to the other edge.  Makes getting around the screen easier and faster.  Great for “power users” but even neophytes will figure out what’s going on in about 10 seconds.

6. When Deleting A Show, Allow Up/Down Voting:  When deleting a show, there is a final “confirmation” screen that comes up to make sure you really want to delete.  That’s fine.  But, on this screen, TiVo should provide the ability to up/down vote the show (this is one of the most common places from which to want to down-vote shows).  Even a tip that this feature is available here would help.

7. Space Use:  Somewhere in the system (probably on TiVo Central), there should be some indication of how much space is currently being used by user-specified recordings and TiVo suggestions.  

If any of the above sound unreasonable or silly, let me know why.  Would love to read your thoughts in the comments.  If you have any ideas of your own, please leave a comment.